A quintessential hostess, Dolley Madison was at the center of the national political scene for many years and defined the role of First Lady in the 19th century.
At a time when women had few rights, Ann Makemie Holden managed her large plantation on the Eastern Shore and strove to uphold the ideals of the American Revolution.
Edith Turner, chief of the Nottoway, successfully navigated nineteenth-century Nottoway and Anglo-American societies while she strove to keep the tribe’s children on the reservation.
Gowan Pamphlet was born enslaved, but persevered to become a well-known preacher, gain his freedom, and establish a Baptist church in Williamsburg that continues as an active congregation today.
Setting a charitable example, Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell fostered the fledgling Methodist Church in southwestern Virginia as a devoted adherent and through material and compassionate support of the church.